Karen Dugas exhibition

There are two kinds of people: those who like history, science and concrete facts and those who love myths and stories and think symbolically. While such a split into opposing camps may be simplistic, it’s rare for both perspectives to blend seamlessly. Karen Dugas conjures this merging of worldviews in The Eternal Return, as time, history, nature and anthropology encounter the mystery of a deeply felt personal mythology.

Dugas’ installation offers a nearly wall-sized landscape that’s eerily familiar yet completely out of the ordinary. A horizon line of forest encircles viewers. It’s depicted in such exquisite detail that I almost felt I could bend down and pick up a stick or flower. Seasons change from wall to wall. The land is typical Alberta bush – no different from the view outside the gallery. It was photographed near Dugas’ acreage home east of Edmonton.

But this familiar landscape transports viewers to a mythological world populated by almost life-sized nude females. They appear in perspective, as if encountered on a wilderness hike. At once prehistoric and fully modern, they seem to perform a ritualistic dance, one that evokes Neolithic rites or the oracular sibyls of antiquity.

Staged in a contemporary setting, it’s like a dream. Time stands suspended, clocks no longer measure past and present. But this is no ordinary dream, the kind that rehashes chronologically scrambled daily events: it mythologizes them. This is a dream you might experience a few times in a lifetime, the kind that stays with you for years.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung might have smiled and nodded with recognition. The exhibition is filled with what he termed archetypes – symbols that reappear in various cultures. For example, in the winter set of panels, Under the Spell, a woman holds a glowing egg on her outstretched hand. Is it the Hindu egg-shaped cosmos Hiranyagarbha, the so-called golden womb that floated in dark emptiness until it broke and the universe was formed? Is it the cosmic egg found in countless creation myths? Perhaps, it is the symbol of regeneration and fertility celebrated at Easter. The artist offers no clues to unlock these symbols. And yet, the encompassing scale, the careful composition and even the superb printing indicate this is no arbitrary arrangement of bizarre objects.

The Eternal Return is an intensely poetic show – even a signature work – by an experienced artist. As Dugas relates, the work was created over two years of thought and concentration. She spent long winter hours in her country home dreaming and rearranging. The result is an ordinary prairie landscape transformed through the filter of personal mythology. This is what art does best: it transports us, allowing us to view our daily, predictable world through the eyes of an artist. It turns prose into poetry and helps us dream.